Now Mrs. W. was getting sallow,

Her lilies not of the white kind, but yellow,

And friends portended was preparing for

A human pâté périgord;

She was, indeed, so very far from well,

Her son, in filial fear, procured a box

Of those said pellets to resist bile's shocks,

And—tho' upon the ear it strangely knocks—

To save her by a Cockle from a shell!

But Mrs. W., just like Macbeth,